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[E-Unit]

Gday,

The other day i went to Meulemans to have a look at the new gear as i recieved an email from Wayne telling me they had all of their stock in. Straight away i headed to the bats and had a look, i was very impressed by some of the lower grade bats such as the Nitro 5 Star as Meulemans managed to get them handmade instead of getting them from India. Anyway i moved on to the XXX3s with Bob, he was telling me that the 500s were the best bats value wise as they dont cost a fortune and yet have some of the best willow. He was telling me how good some of the XXX willow was and how he thought it was the best he had got yet, he then went through the 500s and then found this amazing 13 grained 500, his first word was Sh*t when he saw it, he then told me that they must have miss graded it as he thought it should have been a 1000 which is g1 and the 500 is g3, anyway he then looked for a 1000 sticker and told me that i shouldnt look at another bat because this is the best bat hes seen in that range/price range for ages. After having a tap with a ball i knew it was the right bat for me and handed over the cash, $350.

Specs
SH
2.8
13/14 straight grains

Service
Brilliant, Bob talked to me about bats and picked it out for me.

performance
After knocking it in slightly and hitting a ball up on it, this bat is a lot nicer then my Laver and Wood, which is brilliant. So im well chuffed with this bat.Cant wait for next season.

Pick up
The pick up on this bat is crazy, it is so well balanced as you would expect being hand made by Stuart, but its just amazing at how light it is.

Middle position
It has a high middle, unlike the Custom made range the 500 has smaller edges but a lot more wood in theback of the bat. The toe isnt as long as the Custom so it should be less prone to breaking through their.

Anyway the bat is brilliant, i recommend it to anyone who wants to get a XXX, the service at Meulemans will be great as they are friendly and efficient.

Pics..








Sorry about the PJ's!!
Also the pics dont do the bat justice!

Oh and btw, Bob is the guy who basically owns the shop but sold it to his son Justin. And Stuart is the head GN batmaker.

Hope i didnt bore anyone!

[stevie]

The grains on that look lovely, 3/4 heartwood?

[E-Unit]

Nah, there isnt actually heartwood its just the pics, in normal daylight you cant actually see it, i think its just a darker tint of wood but still sapwood.

[stevie]

O'k E, it does look looks absolutely lovely and i actually prefer these sticker's to the ordinary gn ones. What type of grip is that?

[E-Unit]

cheers,

Well it came with the XXX white grip over the top, but this is just some cheap black grip that was under, looks better then white IMO, but hoping to get a black chevron grip.

[Danny]

Great review mate! Certainly made good reading.

[Arthur]

That's a rather nice bat, seem to have got a real bargain there.

[Master-Basterd]

Hope it gets you lots of runs, great review !

[Sambo]

Thats a stunner. Bobby is gillis coach inst he mate.

[E-Unit]

Cheers boys, knocking it in now and its ping is brilliant.

And yeah he was/is gillys coach

[Sambo]

While you were there, was there any chance you saw the XXX3 1000 pads.

[E-Unit]

Yeah i did, great pads i also liked the kookaburra mayhem, great for the price.

[Sambo]

cheers mate.

[PunterPonting]

Without having a dig it sounds like a typical Bob thing to do (the whole saying 'sh*t' thing and saying its wrongly graded). I do like Meulemans but they do push their XXX forward more than anything else, as it is effectively their own brand. I don't want to sound like a cynic but I don't think I've ever left Meulemans with a bat without Bob telling me it was a total gun, so unless they are all total guns...After all they grade their bats on the face and that appears to have a bit of heartwood in it so it will only ever be a500 or 750. It does to me however look good enough to be a 750 so I think you've done bloody well.

They are sweet bats, I sold my 500 16 grain half heartwood XXX2 to a mate who preceeded to hit about 5 sixes in 4 over with it...

[E-Unit]

Yeah, i feel the whole grading is really on clean faces and big profiles, it does run in the family having spoken to Justin a fair bit. Looking at my mates bats who have 750s and 1000s, they use light bats like 2.6 and theres seem to have bigger profiles but less grains which i believe less grains alow the cleft to be less dence? Ive gone to meulemans ever since i started cricket and have dealt with bob every single time, he does try pull one over you if he can.

I suppose they do push there XXX range but honestly your more likely to get a nicer XXX then you are kookaburra or slazenger. All together im happy to have got this bat and for $350 i dont care what it is but it certainly isnt grade 3, doesnt play like one either. As ive said before if anyone is to get a XXX i would tend to head more towards the 500-1000 as the custom doesnt have a nice profile in my opinion. Did you look at any limited editions while you were over?